British public support for the ongoing war in Iraq has fallen for the first time below 50 percent since the conflict broke out on March 20, according to a poll published by the Daily Mirror newspaper Thursday.
The GMTV poll showed that currently only 48 percent of the polled said they support war, while fewer than one in seven of them said they believe in U.S. President George W. Bush.
However, 78 percent of the polled said they do not want British troops brought home until the war is over, no matter how long it takes.
On Wednesday, a Daily Telegraph poll said 54 percent of Britons favored military action. But 56 percent feared Britain and the United States might get bogged down in a lengthy conflict.
British public support for the war on Iraq began to drop on Sunday when a survey found that Britons who believed it was right to take military action against Iraq went down to 54 percent from 59 percent on March 27, but higher than 50 percent on March 20, the day the war started.
The decline in public backing underlined a growing feeling among Britons that the war is "nothing like people felt they were led to expect," local analysts said.
(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2003)
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